Interesting solution to an alignment problem

Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/ wrote:
> 1989 Mazda 626. I replaced the lower control arm on the pass side in
> December, and while it resolved the ball joint issue, the steering wheel
> was cocked to the passenger's side and pulling to the right.
>
> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up until
> 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET AGAIN,
> so when I got up at 10 I figured, I'm gonna PAY someone this time and
> relax, and get it lined up all at once. Every shop I went to..."If you had
> come last week..."
>
> It got up to 64 degrees in Massachusetts (they said t was going to be 46,
> so I had planned to do it today anyway, and 65 was just a bonus...) so I
> pulled into the yard, got the jack, stands and tools out and went at it.
> Wasn't as easy as the other one, and, see later for an aside question.
> The only thing I couldn't get out was the sway bar link from the old
> control arm, and AutoZone went from $4.99 to $18!!! But, it's all
> together, and...the wheel is STRAIGHT and the pulling is GONE! All I did
> was just put it back in where the other one was, and it drives straight
> down the road, no pulling, no nothing, just nice and smooth. I figured
> this might happen, but I was betting more on having the alignment go WAY
> out.
>
>
> BTW, there was something on the driver's side not on the passenger's side:
> a "Black Box" I had to remove to get the rear bolts out. It had no
> connections on it, just bolted to the frame, and appears to be a big
> magnet. It attracted my tools when I set it down.
>
> The car does not have ABS or 4 wheel steering (some did). Any ideas?
>
>

Sounds like a light trip magnet. Used on vehicles that don't have enough
steel to reliably trip traffic lights and other magnetic switch items.

I have them on my motorcycles so you don't need to wait for the timer.

--
Steve W.
(\___/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 2/17/2011 5:12 PM, Hachiroku ãƒ�ãƒ�ãƒ*ク wrote:
> 1989 Mazda 626. I replaced the lower control arm on the pass side in
> December, and while it resolved the ball joint issue, the steering wheel
> was cocked to the passenger's side and pulling to the right.
>
> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up until
> 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET AGAIN,
> so when I got up at 10 I figured, I'm gonna PAY someone this time and
> relax, and get it lined up all at once. Every shop I went to..."If you had
> come last week..."
>
> It got up to 64 degrees in Massachusetts (they said t was going to be 46,
> so I had planned to do it today anyway, and 65 was just a bonus...) so I
> pulled into the yard, got the jack, stands and tools out and went at it.
> Wasn't as easy as the other one, and, see later for an aside question.
> The only thing I couldn't get out was the sway bar link from the old
> control arm, and AutoZone went from $4.99 to $18!!! But, it's all
> together, and...the wheel is STRAIGHT and the pulling is GONE! All I did
> was just put it back in where the other one was, and it drives straight
> down the road, no pulling, no nothing, just nice and smooth. I figured
> this might happen, but I was betting more on having the alignment go WAY
> out.
>
>
> BTW, there was something on the driver's side not on the passenger's side:
> a "Black Box" I had to remove to get the rear bolts out. It had no
> connections on it, just bolted to the frame, and appears to be a big
> magnet. It attracted my tools when I set it down.
>
> The car does not have ABS or 4 wheel steering (some did). Any ideas?
>

Interesting mysterious magnet. Could there be a sensor nearby that it
could move next to and trip/activate? Perhaps it's supposed to trigger
an anti-tank mine. My guess is that it's a good idea to remove it.

I used to have a Taurus that had a small red light with something that
looked like a jack that you plugged into near the bottom of the dash.
The light stayed on for 7 years and I never did figure out what the heck
it was.

1989 Mazda 626. I replaced the lower control arm on the pass side in
December, and while it resolved the ball joint issue, the steering wheel
was cocked to the passenger's side and pulling to the right.

My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up until
3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET AGAIN,
so when I got up at 10 I figured, I'm gonna PAY someone this time and
relax, and get it lined up all at once. Every shop I went to..."If you had
come last week..."

It got up to 64 degrees in Massachusetts (they said t was going to be 46,
so I had planned to do it today anyway, and 65 was just a bonus...) so I
pulled into the yard, got the jack, stands and tools out and went at it.
Wasn't as easy as the other one, and, see later for an aside question.
The only thing I couldn't get out was the sway bar link from the old
control arm, and AutoZone went from $4.99 to $18!!! But, it's all
together, and...the wheel is STRAIGHT and the pulling is GONE! All I did
was just put it back in where the other one was, and it drives straight
down the road, no pulling, no nothing, just nice and smooth. I figured
this might happen, but I was betting more on having the alignment go WAY
out.


BTW, there was something on the driver's side not on the passenger's side:
a "Black Box" I had to remove to get the rear bolts out. It had no
connections on it, just bolted to the frame, and appears to be a big
magnet. It attracted my tools when I set it down.

The car does not have ABS or 4 wheel steering (some did). Any ideas?

=?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= >
wrote in :


>
> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
> until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux
> YET AGAIN,



I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.



--
Tegger

Tegger > wrote:
>=?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= >
>wrote in :
>>
>> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
>> until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux
>> YET AGAIN,
>
>I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.

It is. And if the computer itself dies, the easy solution is to
transplant the hard drive into a new computer and keep going. So I
am a little curious what Hachiroku is doing...
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Tegger" > wrote in message
...
> =?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= >
> wrote in :
>
>
>>
>> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
>> until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux
>> YET AGAIN,
>
>
>
> I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.
>


It is, unless the computer is owned by an idiot, who also happens to be a
Dell service tech who lives with his mother.

SNIP
>
> I used to have a Taurus that had a small red light with something that
> looked like a jack that you plugged into near the bottom of the dash.
> The light stayed on for 7 years and I never did figure out what the
> heck it was.

That probably was an anti-theft device. I had one on a '94 Olds. If
you pulled the coded plug out, the ignition system is disabled. Car
won't start even with key, or another "wrong" plug, or any attempt at
hot-wiring. Red light meant you had correct plug for that car.

--

On Fri, 18 Feb 2011 03:29:36 +0000, Tegger wrote:

> =?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= > wrote
> in :
>
>
>
>> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
>> until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux YET
>> AGAIN,
>
>
>
> I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.

It wasn't Linux, I am going to refrain from the name of the @#$%^&
motherboard manufacturer until I see what their offer to fix it is.

I bought one back in July of last year from a "computer show", a Factory
Refurbished board. I needed another video card and more ram, so it wasn't
until almost Thansgiving that I got it built. Ran real nice! For about 35
hours. Then...poof...

"Your board was made for sale in Taiwan and there is no US warranty
support available.

Now, the caveat is that the board it was replacing had an Intel SATA
controller, and this had an nVidia controller. So I loaded up from
scratch. When it went bonkers, I had to load from scratch again. Then, the
seller offered me a 'new' board at not much of a discount, so I bought it
(it was under $50...these are older 775 Pentium D boards). I built it
around New Year's and did a 4 day burn in on it, since the seller
generously dropped his warranty from 90 days to 14...including shipping
time (3 days). After running it for 4 days, 16 hours a day, I decided it
was probably OK, and set it up. Again, having to reload Linux from scratch.

Last night, Win7 wouldn't load, and I figured it might be because I had a
3.4G Pentium running at 3.95G. I dropped the clocks back to stock
and...nothing. No beeps, no nothing. Since I need a computer for work I
fired up the old mobo, copied my backed up INIT files back into the boot
directory and...nothing. Reload from scratch again.

BTW, Windows XP was able to deal with it. Windows 2000 couldn't, and
Windows 7 couldn't. But I had to re-up my 'genuine Windows' to get it
activated.

Before this I swapped an AMD Athlon board for the board that's running now
and had no problems. It's only when you introduce the nVidia SATA drivers
you have an issue.

On Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:51:46 -0500, Scott Dorsey wrote:

> Tegger > wrote:
>>=?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= > wrote
>>in :
>>>
>>> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
>>> until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux
>>> YET AGAIN,
>>
>>I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.
>
> It is. And if the computer itself dies, the easy solution is to
> transplant the hard drive into a new computer and keep going. So I am a
> little curious what Hachiroku is doing... --scott


See my answer to Teg...it was the nVidia SATA drivers messing the works up.

On Feb 17, 10:51*pm, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> Tegger > wrote:
> >=?iso-2022-jp?q?Hachiroku_=1B$B%O%A%m%=2F=1B=28B?= >
> >wrote :
>
> >> My computer decided to blow it's brains out last night, and I was up
> >> until 3:30AM putting the old one back in service and reloading Linux
> >> YET AGAIN,
>
> >I thought Linux was supposed to be more stable than a Swiss government.
>
> It is. *And if the computer itself dies, the easy solution is to
> transplant the hard drive into a new computer and keep going. *So I
> am a little curious what Hachiroku is doing...

I've found two shortcomings with Linux over the years...

1) if your power quality sucks (to the point where you have several
short outages every day) and you don't have a UPS, eventually things
will become corrupt to the point where it won't boot.

2) I haven't had any luck with ANY proprietary video drivers with
Linux - I've used both Intel and ATI and while ATI is *better,* it's
still not perfect. Both my boxen have ATI video right now,
thankfully. Intel on Ubuntu 10.04 is not pretty.

nate